The present invention relates to a light water reactor, a core of the light water reactor and fuel assembly, and more particularly, to a light water reactor, a core of the light water reactor and fuel assembly preferably applied to a boiling water reactor.
When actinide nuclide, which has many isotopes and is included in a nuclear fuel material in a fuel assembly loaded in a core of a light water reactor, burns in a core, the actinide nuclide to transfers among isotopes in succession by nuclear transmutation such as nuclear fission and neutron absorption. Since odd-numbered nucleus that has a large nuclear fission cross section with respect to a resonance and thermal neutrons, and even-numbered nucleus that undergoes fission only for fast neutrons are present as the actinide nuclide, in general, present ratios of the isotopes present in the actinide nuclides included in the fuel assembly largely change as the actinide nuclides burn. It is known that this present ratio change depends on the neutron energy spectrum at the position at which the fuel assembly is loaded in the core.
Current light water rectors use slightly enriched uranium as nuclear fuel. However, since the natural uranium resource is finite, it is necessary to successively replace fuel assemblies used in the light water reactor with recycled fuel assemblies including a nuclear fuel material which is formed by enriching depleted uranium, which is a residual after uranium enrichment, with the transuranic nuclide (TRU) extracted from spent fuel assemblies in the light water reactor. TRU needs to be recycled as a useful resource over a very long period predicted to be necessary for commercial reactors, and during this period, the amount of TRU needs to always increase or to be maintained nearly constant. JP 3428150 B describes technology to implement a breeder reactor in which the amount of fissionable Pu is increased or maintained nearly constant in light water reactors that occupy most of the current commercial reactors. In a light water reactor in which the breeder reactor described in JP 3428150 B and R. TAKEDA et al., “General Features of Resource-Renewable BWR (RBWR) and Scenario of Long-term Energy Supply”, Proc. of International Conference on Evaluation of Emerging Nuclear Fuel Cycle Systems. GLOBAL '95 Versailles, France, September, 1995, P. 938 is became a reality, a plurality of fuel assemblies, each of which has a hexagonal transverse cross section, are disposed in the core, each fuel assembly being formed by closely arranging a plurality of fuel rods in a triangular grid. In the core of this light water reactor, the amount of water around the fuel rods is lessened due to the close arrangement of the fuel rods, and thereby the ratios of resonant energy neutrons and fast energy neutrons are increased. In addition, the height of a mixed oxide fuel section of the TRU is reduced and blanket zones loaded with depleted uranium are disposed above and below the mixed oxide burning part so as to maintain a negative void coefficient, which is a safety criterion. The core is formed in two stacked stages by applying the concept of a parfait-type core described in G. A. Ducat et al., Evaluation of the Parfait Blanket Concept for Fast Breeder Reactors, MITNE-157, ABSTRACT, January, 1974, thereby a breeding ratio of 1 or more is ensure, keeping the economy.
To recycle TRU, the reprocessing of spent fuel is indispensable. Due to a fear that consumer TRU is diverted to weapons of mass destruction, there has been an increasing demand for nuclear non-proliferation and thereby restrictions on TRU recycling have been severe.
It is certain that an electric power generating system superior to a fission reactor is put into practical use on some day in the future. At that time, the value of TRU is lowered from a very useful fuel equivalent to enriched uranium to a cumbersome long-lived waste material. Accordingly, the most important object in nuclear power development is to establish a TRU disposal method.